


Second Thoughts

by Garonne



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Gen, police academy era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6302812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garonne/pseuds/Garonne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few weeks before they graduate from the Academy, Hutch returns to Bay City to find something's bothering Starsky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nicky Gabriel](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Nicky+Gabriel).



> This was written for Nicky Gabriel a few years back as part of the Christmas exchange organised by Dawnwind.
> 
> The prompts were: dilemmas, happy endings, police academy stories, cops on the take

.. .. ..

As soon as Hutch got back to Bay City, he phoned his best friend. Starsky sounded out of breath when he answered.

"I was moving my pinball machine," he explained.

Hutch felt his jaw drop.

"Your what? Starsky... where did you get that? And more to the point, where are you going to put it in that shoebox you call an apartment?"

"It was a bargain," Starsky said evasively. "So how was San Diego?"

"I pretty much only saw the inside of the courthouse," Hutch said ruefully.

"They convict the guy?"

"Yeah, twenty years."

It was a kidnapping case, which Hutch had gotten mixed up in because he and his partner had been the ones to stumble across the victim's prison, checking out reports of strange behaviour in an empty parking lot. The kidnapping itself had taken place in San Diego, however, and that was where the trial was held. Hutch hadn't actually been able to testify, since he wasn't a serving officer yet, but he'd gone with his partner Walker for the educational experience.

"Trip back okay?" Starsky asked.

"It was fine."

"You wanna come over tonight?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Good."

Something sounded funny in Starsky's voice.

"You okay, Starsk?"

"I'm fine." 

Hutch wasn't quite convinced, but he thought the best thing to do was probably to get over there and see Starsky in person.

The pinball machine turned out to be pretty small, thank goodness. It fitted on Starsky's side table. Starsky himself was stirring a tomato sauce.

"Hope you're hungry."

"Starving," Hutch said, sitting down at the kitchen table. Starsky's notes and books from the Academy were spread out across it. 

Three weeks to go, Hutch thought, with the familiar flutter of nervousness in his stomach. He was sure that both he and Starsky would ace their final exams, but that didn't stop him being nervous all the same.

"Has your Mom got her flights sorted for graduation yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, she has," Starsky said, but to Hutch's surprise he didn't sound particularly happy about it. And this was from a man who'd spent the last month speculating excitedly about just how much they could manage to fit in to Mrs Starsky's six-day visit.

Hutch couldn't let that past. He frowned up at Starsky's back.

"What's bugging you?"

Starsky turned the hob down low to let the sauce simmer, and came to sit at the table opposite Hutch.

"Riviera ended up in hospital with appendicitis -- he's fine, don't worry -- and so I got partnered with another guy, Carstairs."

Carstairs was one of the most experienced uniformed officers in the district. Hutch had seen him around the station, but never exchanged more than a few words with him.

"What's he like?"

"He's on the take."

Hutch swore softly.

Starsky's lip had curled into an expression of distaste.

"I've seen it before, 'course, but this time... right under my nose, you know? It turns my stomach."

It turned Hutch's stomach too.

"I don't like to be a tattle-tale," Starsky went on, "but what the hell am I supposed to do, turn a blind eye?"

"I sure as hell wouldn't have," Hutch said, "and I know you didn't either."

That got him a quick, if half-hearted, grin.

"I know you wouldn't have, Hutch." His grin vanished. "So yeah, I did try and have a word with the cap'n -- but it looks like he already knows all about it. I didn't even get as far as mentioning Carstair's name, actually. The cap'n cut me off -- said something about not upsetting the applecart."

Hutch had never particularly liked Captain Hawks, the chief of the district where they were both in training, but now he found himself disliking the man strongly.

"I'm pretty sure he's not on the take himself, at least," Starsky added. "Though who knows? Sometimes it feels like half the guys in the station are -- "

That thought had crossed Hutch's mind once or twice already too, but he knew it wasn't really true. In any case he wasn't going to say he agreed, when all he wanted right now was to cheer Starsky up.

"Come on, Starsk, they're not."

"Near enough," Starsky muttered.

"I don't like it either," Hutch said, though it seemed an awful feeble thing to say for something that often made his blood boil.

Starsky was looking down at his hands on the table now, his face creased into a frown.

"And it makes me think," he said slowly. "What's the point of it all? I mean, why do I even want to be a cop, if that's what being a cop means."

Hutch felt his stomach plummet, like an iron weight had just settled in his gut. He stared at Starsky, suddenly unable to formulate a single word.

"Sauce is gonna burn," Starsky said suddenly, jumping to his feet.

Hutch stared at Starsky's back, his mind whirling, his mouth suddenly dry.

He and Starsky had been inseperable since their very first day at the Academy, but they'd never yet been partnered for real, outside of training exercises. They'd talked about it a lot, though: about how they'd try and get assigned to the same district after graduation, about how they'd convince their commanding officer that they'd work much better together than each with a more experienced officer.

It was only now that Hutch realised just how much he'd been looking forward to it. Could he bear to lose this when he hadn't even got it yet?

He swallowed round the sudden lump in his throat.

"I'm not gonna try to persuade -- you gotta do what you think is right, Starsk."

Starsky turned to look at him, and something of Hutch's whirling thoughts must have been showing in his face, because Starsky put the ladel down in a hurry and came back to the table, giving Hutch's shoulder a squeeze as he passed.

"Hey, I didn't say I was leaving. I just... it makes me think, that's all."

He sat down in the chair closest to Hutch, shifting it across a few inches so that he could nudge Hutch's shoulder with his own.

"You look like you just ate something that disagreed with you, and we haven't even had dinner yet."

Hutch had to laugh at that.

They both soon sobered up again, though. Hutch met Starsky's eye, and Starsky gave him a serious look in return.

"You see what I mean though?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, but..." Hutch took a deep breath, trying to get his thoughts in order. This was very important to him. "You know, not all districts are as bad as the one we're in now. In fact, I think we're possibly in the rottenest district in Bay City at the moment. And even if no other district is perfect either -- I mean, we can't do anything to change it if we're on the outside, can we?"

"Hutch, we're not going to be able to change the whole system."

Hutch leaned forward, enthusiastic now, arguing as much for that hypothetical future partnership as for his own point of view.

"Listen, Starsk, let me tell you how I see it, and then -- then I won't go on about it any more." He took another deep breath. "How I see it is -- we're going to be the best cops in Bay City, we're gonna make detective, and we're gonna be partners. We're gonna have the best arrest records, we're gonna be completely irreproachable, we're gonna be someone people listen to, all right? Someone people have to listen to whether they like it or not."

"Maybe," Starsky said slowly. Then he smiled suddenly. "I mean, yes of course to being the best detectives in Bay City. And as for changing the system from the inside... well, sometimes it feels like, you know, when I'm with you anything is possible."

Hutch felt like a weight had come off his shoulders.

Starsky was watching him closely, and seemed to notice something in Hutch's expression that made him frown.

"Hey, I'm sorry, Hutch. I didn't mean to make you flip out. I don't really wanna quit. I just wanted to -- get some stuff clear in my head." He reached out to squeeze Hutch's hand. "I wouldn't leave you in there on your own, babe."

"I know you wouldn't."

Just at that moment, a sort of acrid burning smell wafted past Hutch's nose.

"Starsky, the sauce -- "

Starsky was already jumping to his feet, swearing. He rushed to the hob, but it was already too late.

"What was that about giving me food poisoning?" Hutch said with a grin.

Starsky quit swearing, and dumped the burnt pan in the sink.

"Uh... how do you feel about getting takeout?"


End file.
